I've now been teaching online for a full month, due to COVID-19 closures in my state. Because of our spring break schedule we were able to make the switch to distance learning fairly quickly. Since then, I've tried (and failed at) several different strategies for teaching my sophomores and AP®* Lit ...
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Tips And Strategies For Converting To Digital Teaching
As I'm writing this, I'm getting bombarded with communication regarding COVID-19. Teachers that I follow virtually and some that I know personally were just notified that their classes are being moved to online-only, and some have been given almost no time to prepare. In general, teachers in America ...
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Reclaiming Your Time – How I Stick to a 40 Hour Workweek
This school year marks my 14th straight year teaching of AP® English Literature. While I've learned quite a few strategies in that time, when I first started out in the profession I demonstrated all of typical first year teacher traits: I was usually only planned one day ahead (if that). I took ...
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15 Ways to Liven Up a Lesson With Media
One thing that I work hard on, perhaps too hard at times, is keeping lessons interesting. I believe in mixing different elements of instruction and content into each lesson. To do that, I often integrate different forms of media. Here are 15 different strategies for integrating your lessons with ...
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Enhance Your AP Lit lessons With Task Cards
At the beginning of the school year I was trying to think of a way to make the AP®* Lit standards visible and accessible for my students. Eventually, I turned the questions from the CED into task cards (and naturally, I made them pretty!). These task cards are available in my store here. The AP ...
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Using Personal Progress Checks in AP Classroom
Today I ventured into new territory with my AP®* Literature students: online practice testing. This feature is called the Personal Progress Check and it's available on AP® Classroom, a site released in 2019. Until today I've resisted online assessments in favor of pencil and paper, mostly because ...
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